|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tel.: |
(514) 874-8344 |
|
Fax: |
(514) 878-4553 |
|
E-mail: |
- Contents
- Editorial
- CANADIAN DEMOCRACY
- IN THE REST OF THE WORLD
- Congo-Zaire: Colin Powell, the First Black Secretary of States Must Impose Peace in Congo-Zaire, the Biggest Black Country in the World with a New President Except Joseph Kabila
Between the Canadian and the United States' Model
Third Summit of the Americas held in Quebec will bring together delegates from 34 countries including Canada, the other country of Americas member of G7 which has elaborated a model of development different from the one of the United States. This model has allowed Canada to be classified regularly by United Nations, the world leader for its quality of life.
To prevent a new Independence war, Great Britain, by a parliament law, The British North American Act, gave Canada his freedom. Since then the Canadian constitution underwent many revisions; the most important was in 1982 because it brought back to Canada its amendment formula which was a prerogative of the Great Britain's parliament. The Constitutional Act of 1982 also contains the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, profoundly transforming the judicial and legal aspects of the country.
The constitution of 1867 recognized Canada as a federal country with the existence of the French-speaking minority whose language was elected to the same rank as the English by The Official Languages Act of Trudeau government in 1969. This same government did recognize multiculturalism to underline the immigrants' contribution to the country, contrasting with the American politics of melting pot trying to cast everybody in the Anglo-Saxon mould of the sociological majority.
Social movements born in the Canadian Prairies during the thirties did lead in the sixties to the establishment of the free Health Care System and to the generous health services which are considered by many as the essential elements that distinguish Canada from the United States of America where billions of individuals are without health insurance.
We also have to give credit to the Canadian system for free education at the primary and secondary compulsory level up to sixteen years.
In the eighties, Canada, being a tolerant country, abolished the death penalty which remains an important stain on the United States' democracy. Canada authorized, in 1980, the holding of the first referendum for Quebec Independence, a situation that would be taken into consideration by the United States.
At the international level, Canada always tried to maintain a separate politics from the one of his Southern neighbours. Canada was the instigator of the United Nations Peace Corps, an idea that gave the Nobel Prize in 1957 to Mr. Leaster B. Pearson who was Prime Minister between 1964 and 1980. In the same way Canada signed in 1997 in Ottawa the Mine Ban Treaty against antipersonnel land mines despite the United States' opposition.
In 1970 Canada recognized, before the United States, Mao China's Communist government and always had excellent relationships with Cuba whose Castro regime is considered a sworn enemy by the United States.
For a long time Canada denounced military dictatorships supported in many countries of Americas by the United States and favoured the progress of democracy in those countries by contributing to the financing of non violent actions in the civil society, by participating to the United Nations peace maintenance missions and by according a support to the organization of transparent elections thanks to the expertise of Election Canada considered as one of the best election organiser in the world.
The protection of democracy and of civil rights, especially the struggle against sexual and racial discrimination and the fair distribution of wealth are at the centre of the Canadian model of development.
The countries of Americas who embark on the stumbling road of the economical development and of the human dignity can find in Canada institutions partners capable of being of use to them as models in order that the next free trade zone of Americas do not become, as civil societies fear, a simple market of goods and services where the big Northern enterprises would impose their law on the Southern populations.
We wish that president George W. Bush, who is making his first appearance at a internnational conference and leading a government made up of different races and ethnic groups of the United States, among whom we have to underline the participation of the Secretary of State Colin Powell, first Black person to hold this function and whose parents are Jamaicans, will be able to associate with Canada, the Latin American countries, Mexico and Brazil to realise a continental and human integration.
28 September, all Canada was immersed in a deep mourning. The different TV stations of the country added rapidly to their programme schedule special broadcastings, some had been taped a long while ago. The next day, every daily journal of the country had also their special edition.
It was a non common event, an event during which Canadians seemed to forget their political differences. Pierre-Elliot Trudeau, considered as the father of democratic institutions of modern Canada, just passed away at the age of 80.
Born in Montreal from a mother of Scottish descent and hence Canadian-Anglo, and from a French Canadian father, Pierre-Elliott Trudeau lived in a family where they spoke easily both French and English.
His father, a lawyer who became a rich businessman thanks to gas service stations and who died in 1937, would have left 3 billions dollars, a tremendous fortune especially for this period following the Great Depression of the thirties. Fatherless but rich, Mr. Trudeau did his secondary course at Collège Brébeuf, a Jesuit institution in Montreal, and training ground for French Canadian elite.
After graduate studies in law at the University of Montreal, Mr. Trudeau went studying to Paris and London. Back in the country, he started to militate in left wing movements. That's how he gave his support to the workers during the asbestos strike in the fifties and where he knew labor unionist Jean Marchand who was to play an important role in his future career. To fight against Prime Minister of Quebec Maurice Duplessis' obscurantism, Mr. Trudeau, with the help of Jean Marchand and of journalist Gérard Pelletier, created a review called "Cité Libre" to which was also associated journalist René Lévesque founder in 1968 of "Le Parti Québécois" and who will become Mr Trudeau's most important political opponent.
Free from money troubles, Mr. Trudeau travelled through several countries of which China. This journey was not foreign to the recognition of Mao People's Republic in 1970 while Mr. Trudeau was Premier of Canada. Mr. Trudeau also maintained very good relationships with President Castro from Cuba who came to his funerals last October. His journeys also helped Mr. Trudeau to understand poverty in the world. It is to remedy to it and for more solidarity that he created in 1969 the Canadian Agency of International Development (ACDI).
When Duplessis died in 1959, Mr. Trudeau as a teacher at the University of Montreal and with "Cité Libre" contributed to the Quiet Revolution which helped Quebec to catch up his intellectual and economical lag. In the eighties, Mr. Trudeau and his group of intellectuals arrived at the conclusion that to help Quebec they had to change Canada and to do that they had to get involved in federal politics.
In 1965, Jean Marchand, Gérard Pelletier and Pierre Trudeau were elected at the House of Common. They gave them the nickname of "The Three Doves". In 1968, Mr. Trudeau became Minister of Justice. When Prime Minister Pearson, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1957, resigned, the Quebec wing of The Liberal Party of Canada wanted to present Mr. Jean Marchand as his successor. The latter withdrew in favor of Pierre-Elliott Trudeau. Elected chief of his party and Prime Minister in 1968, Mr. Trudeau began an administration of sixteen years which was completely going to change the legal image of Canada, especially due to the adoption of The Official Languages Act in 1969 and by the insertion of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution of 1982 with the Minister of Justice, Mr. Jean Chrétien now, Prime minister of Canada.
|
M. T.: |
Would you please describe your duties as Minister? |
|
|
|
|
L. R.: |
As President of Treasury Board Canada, I chair one of the four committees of the Privy Council Office and hold ministerial responsibility for its related administrative body, the Treasury Board Secretariat, which forms a separate department. The Treasury Board assumes the Canadian government's responsibilities for finance, personnel and administration. It also defines the strategic framework in the following areas: accounting, audit and evaluation, markets, financial management, information technologies, real property and regulatory affairs concerning federal administrative methods and assets. I discharge my government management responsibility by implementing the policies and programs approved by Cabinet and providing the departments with the resources and administrative support they need to do their job. The Treasury Board examines and approves the spending plans proposed by the federal departments. It also examines the development of previously approved programs. The Treasury Board lays down the conditions under which the Public Service recruits and retains the staff it needs. The following factors are particularly important in this regard: the delivery of appropriate service to the public, a work place where both official languages are used and equitable representation in federal institutions of French-language and English-language Canadians and members of the four designated groups: women, persons with disabilities, visible minorities and Aboriginal peoples. |
|
|
|
|
M. T.: |
What are the main features of pay equity as advocated by your department? |
|
|
|
|
L. R.: |
The Canadian government recognizes that it is incumbent upon it to offer its employees equal pay for equal work, and it continues to support the principle of pay equity. In 1999, we signed an agreement with the Public Service of Canada involving more than 230,000 past and present employees working in occupational groups consisting mostly of women. The purpose of this agreement was to correct certain past injustices. In addition, with the cooperation of the unions and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, we are continuing to implement a universal general position classification standard that is free of gender discrimination. This standard is a simpler, more direct and more effective way of evaluating and describing the entire range of characteristics of the work performed by men and women in the Public Service of Canada, including the traditionally under-evaluated employment categories. Pay equity will thus form an integral part of the Government of Canada's compensation system. |
|
|
|
|
M. T.: |
How do you see the status of women in Canada in the future? |
|
|
|
|
L. R.: |
In the context of my responsibilities, it is incumbent upon me to ensure that the federal Public Service is representative of Canada's population. It is my conviction that one of the fundamental roles of the state is to provide citizens with a reflection of their society. As regards the women who work in Canada's Public Service, I can tell you that much progress has been made in recent years. For example, I am delighted to see that more than 52% of Public Service employees are now women and that more than half of them occupy administrative, scientific, professional and management positions. Many of those positions have been filled by women who previously held positions as clerks or secretaries in the Public Service. This is very encouraging and may be explained in large part by the ongoing learning opportunities we afford our public servants. Based on this trend, I see the future in an optimistic light. I believe that Canadian women at the dawn of the 21st century will continue being offered opportunities for professional and personal growth by receiving proper recognition for their contributions. In particular, we are working to ensure that Canada's Public Service is a preferred work place, an environment not only free of all forms of discrimination and harassment, but also one of which people are proud. In a word, we must create a stimulating and inviting environment for all women who work there, one that can attract the best elements of society. This also means that efforts must be made to keep them. The essential building blocks of this work place are communication, cooperation and, above all else, mutual respect. |
Over the past decade, there has been a noticeable and welcome shift in the focus of international efforts supporting democratic development. The priority once was to help introduce democracy in states staging their first free elections. Today, the focus is on consolidating democratic procedures and institutions in the increasing number of countries that have already accepted democratic elections.
To a great extent, consolidating democracy means making the democratic process and institutions in a country independently sustainable, both politically and financially. International electoral assistance today is rightfully considered a temporary measure. The objective is that each state should become electorally self-sufficient.
This does not preclude long-term international co-operation and sharing. Even the longest-standing democracies seek to learn from the experience of others, as they continue to adapt their systems and institutions to the evolving needs of their electorates.
As an independent agency of Parliament, Elections Canada's participation in international activities reflects both elements of the equation: electoral support and electoral sharing and co-operation. The agency supports Canada's position in seeking democratic progress around the world. Canadian policy in this arena is directed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Elections Canada is essentially the implementing partner of this policy, at their request and with their funding. DFAIT and CIDA requests typically involve organizing electoral work abroad and hosting foreign visits in Canada. Elections Canada also participates actively in international organizations promoting electoral democracy, and has developed bilateral and multilateral links with various countries' electoral organizations. Over the years, the agency has sought the involvement of Canadian provincial and territorial electoral bodies in international activities.
While Elections Canada's international participation supports Canadian foreign policy objectives, the experience is a two-way street. International activities are also a means of further developing the agency's own expertise and improving electoral management in Canada.
In recent years, Elections Canada has been an active participant in various international forums, including: the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) &endash; where the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, is a member of the board and co-chairs the international advisory committee; the International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance) &endash; where Elections Canada's Assistant Chief Electoral Officer for International Services, Ron Gould, is a senior executive; the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL); the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO); the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers (IACREOT); the Commonwealth Secretariat; La Francophonie; the Unión Interamericana de Organismos Electorales (UNIORE), or Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations, and its Center for Electoral Promotion and Assistance.
Elections Canada has organized three trilateral conferences that brought together representatives from the United States, Mexico and Canada &endash; and hosted one of the conferences in Ottawa, in 1995. In 1998, it hosted the fourth UNIORE conference of the heads of electoral bodies from South, Central and North America. In April 1999, it staged the first conference of the Global Electoral Organization (GEO) Network, which served to launch the Partnership for Electoral and Democratic Development (PEDD), of which the agency is a founding member.
Electoral assignments in other countries are carried out by an inventory of experienced individuals who have expressed an interest in democracy-building activities. They include Elections Canada staff, election workers and officers from different jurisdictions across the country, and members of the academic community. The assignments are always interesting, according to those who have participated, but rarely easy. They often take place in conflict or post-conflict situations.
Since 1990, country-to-country support initiatives have resulted in more than 300 observation or support missions abroad. The agency's mission mandates included electoral observation; advising on constitutional and election law provisions; advising on all aspects of electoral process administration; conducting pre-election evaluations; providing technical aid and advice; preparing election documents and materials; training election officials; developing and conducting voter education or information programs; working directly with other electoral bodies to assist in democratic elections; organizing briefing sessions for visiting foreign delegations and providing information on various aspects of the Canadian electoral process; and assisting other countries seeking to facilitate voting in their elections by their citizens residing in Canada.
In recent important missions, Elections Canada assisted in the first post-conflict elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Cambodia, and played a significant role in the transitional elections in South Africa. The agency participated in a Guatemalan project with the United Nations and IDEA, and was significantly involved in designing voting systems and materials in Nicaragua's first democratic election. During an intensive engagement in Guyana, Canadian specialist observers advised on media relations and election operations, and Canada provided all voting materials.
In future, Elections Canada intends to further develop its consultative role through ongoing joint initiatives with electoral organizations in other countries. The agency considers this avenue to be an excellent means of exchanging information based on knowledge and experience. Participation in long-term projects with a strategic value provides the opportunity to establish new partnerships with various organizations and the private sector.
The technical co-operation agreement between Elections Canada and Mexico's Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) is a model in this respect. It facilitates exchange programs and projects in the area of election administration. Elections Canada will also continue to develop its international contacts, for example with IFES, the UN, the Organization of American States, and International IDEA. Its consultative role will, perhaps, be best expressed through its work within PEDD.
The PEDD initiative &endash; sponsored by IFES, IDEA, the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division, Mexico's IFE and Elections Canada &endash; illustrates the new direction of international efforts to help sustain the development of democracy. Its rationale is to take advantage of the respective strengths of each partner, combining them into a uniquely effective pool of resources to address the emerging challenges of elections and democratic governance.
Elections Canada aims to promote the exchange of knowledge and experience related to organizational and technological developments in the field of electoral procedures and democratic governance. To this end, it will foster participation in technical co-operation projects and high-level seminars or courses. It will also encourage international, regional and bilateral forums and discussions for sharing democratic knowledge and values as they relate to free and fair elections.
This approach ultimately helps support electoral activities in a way that responds to the changing needs of democracy within each country, respecting its culture and its history. In the long term, that is what matters above all. Elections Canada is proud to be engaged in this type of action.
(1) Based on the article "Consolidating Democratic Progress" by F. Demianenko in Electoral Insight, Vol. 1, No. 2, November 1999, and additional material.
The United Nations Civilian Police Mission in Haiti (MIPONUH) ended its mandate on March 15, 2000. This marks the end of an era, the end of the "blue beret" presence in Haiti. However, the Canadian contribution in Haiti will continue despite the retreat of the international peacekeepers.
Canadian support for policing efforts in Haiti began in 1994. Mandated as the executing agency, the RCMP has, over the last six years, brought more than 550 Canadian police officers to the successive United Nations Civilian Police (UN CIVPOL) Missions in Haiti as well as close to 100 trainers and technical advisors to work on bilateral projects with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
This sustained contribution was the first peacekeeping partnership for the Canadian police community. The first to join the RCMP in its peacekeeping efforts were the Montreal Urban Community Police and the Gatineau Police in 1995. They were soon followed by other municipal and provincial police departments from Quebec and Ontario, helping in part with the mission's French language requirement.
Over the years, the United Nations civilian police mandate in Haiti evolved progressively from delivering policing services with an executive mandate, ensuring a secure and stable environment for the elections, assisting in the selection and training of the new Haitian National Police (HNP), to monitoring newly trained officers in the field and providing advice for the institutional development of the HNP.
Today a new mission is starting up &emdash; the International Civilian Mission for Support in Haiti (MICAH). It will gradually replace the outgoing MIPONUH by sending international experts including technical advisors and police officers to Haiti to train its police force in the areas of justice, police and human rights. At the request of Haiti, the technical advisors will be unarmed and will not wear uniforms.
RCMP Supt Yves Bouchard, who served in Haiti between 1998 and 1999 as Deputy Commissioner of the civilian police and as Canadian Contingent Commander, returns there as Chief of the police component for MICAH.
UNMIH United Nations Mission in Haiti
September 1993 &endash; June 1996
UNSMIH United Nations Support Mission in Haiti
July 1996 &endash; July 1997
UNTMIH United Nations Transition Mission in Haiti
August &endash; November 1997
MIPONUH United Nations Civilian Police Mission in Haiti
December 1997 &endash; March 2000
While the relatively new Haitian National Police force gains confidence in providing a safe, secure environment for its citizens, hovering in the wings is a team of 16 serving and retired RCMP officers to provide back-up in a variety of ways.
The helping hand extended by Canada is in the form of a bilateral project sponsored by the RCMP and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It began in 1996 with management training under RCMP instructors at the HNP Academy.
Next, in 1997, a group of experienced RCMP officers went to Haiti to develop a five-year business plan to help the country achieve a minimum sustainable level. Some 42 technical advisors including personnel from France and the United States set to work in key management positions. In December of the same year, the RCMP and CIDA signed a three-year administrative inter-departmental agreement named the Institutional Development Project to provide assistance to the HNP.
The project ensures that the HNP is responsible and accountable for its own development. It alsopromotes a community policing philosophy in which police officers work closely with the people in order to understand their needs and respond to them appropriately. The CIDA/RCMP Institutional Development Project focuses on three major aspects: organizational development, training and logistics.
In addition to providing technical assistance in administratiave areas, the team is sharing its technical expertise with the HNP for its air services, forensic laboratory, the Academy Documentation Centre, criminal intelligence and the car pool.
The following article has been published in the April 2000 issue of the RCMP Pony Express. The CIDA/RCMP project in Haiti was concluded on March 31, 2001.
Five RCMP officers, including Contingent Commander Insp. Alain Lambert, currently serving on the UNCIVPOL mission to Guatemala are helping to protect human rights in the central American country after more than 30 years of war. A cease-fire agreement between the Government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca was signed in Oslo in 1996, ending the longest running war in Latin America, and leading the way for the United Nations to monitor compliance of the parties and build a lasting peace in the ravaged country. The conflict in Guatemala saw widespread violations of human rights, particularly aimed at the country's indigenous Mayan population.
During the 1980s, thousands of Mayans fled the native provinces for the cities, where they struggle to earn a living. Guatemala's unemployment rate stands at 20 percent, but only 25 percent of the workforce has social security. An estimated 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The streets of the country's capital, Guatemala City, are filled with people selling newspapers or shining shoes, fuelling an underground economy estimated at 34 percent of Guatemala's GDP. Growing economic problems led to violence and international intervention.
Without a democratic social contract, the country faces the repeat of its historical pattern, with economic crisis giving way to military rule, whose first casualty is justice.
The country's fortunes have declined, together with those of most Latin American countries, for more than 30 years. In 1960, the region accounted for almost 8 percent of world trade. By 1990, the figure had dropped to 3.3 percent.1 Unemployment tripled, and employment deteriorated in quality, with a higher level of insecurity for most workers. 2 The instability marked by economic restructuring, increased poverty and the deepening of inequality affect regional politics and deter democracy. By 1990, 46 percent of Latin Americans, 196 million people, were poor. 3 After the country's debt crisis in the early 1980s, many workers were forced to accept large wage reductions or unemployment, and many escaped to the underground economy. Many urban poor people saw crime and violence as a way out. 4
A small elite group of educated, Spanish-speaking Guatemalans controls most of the country's resources, and this social inequality makes democratic reform difficult.5 As long as the majority are poor, unemployed and undefended by the justice system, long-term solutions will remain elusive. MINUGUA aims to build a new relationship between the state and civil society, instituting a multi-party system, free elections and the rule of law, and eliminating institutionalized racism. Mission officers face a daunting task. Civil corruption, unfair taxation systems, a legacy of military rule and large-scale drug trafficking stand in the way of a free society.
In the late 1980s, the World Bank launched a program of support by providing funds for technological assistance for judicial reform throughout Latin America. But despite this support, and additional funding from the Inter-American Development Bank in 1994, efforts to reform court administration and legal education produced minimal results. A 1998 World Bank report stated that "the criminal justice system in almost all of the countries of the region is inefficient and time-consuming in the extreme, and only a minuscule proportion of the perpetrators of crimes is ever brought to justice."6
MINUGUA has a two-part mandate of human rights verification, with responsibility for strengthening Guatemala's ability to protect human rights. MINUGUA received its mandate from United Nation's General Assembly Resolution 48/267, adopted on September 19, 1994.
More than 400 people will represent 37 countries in the UN mission, including 43 police officers from 18 countries. The Director of the Mission in Guatemala, M. Jean Arnaud, will direct all verification tasks and institutional building programs. Supported by advisors on human rights, legal affairs, military, and police functions, he will also receive advice on aboriginal issues in his headquarters in Guatemala City. Fifteen Regional offices will be established throughout the country, with regional coordinators providing technical assistance and administration.
On January 20, 1997, the UN Security Council established MINUGUA as a civil and humanitarian mission, which included a three-month verification mission to maintain the cease-fire signed by the Government of Guatemala and the revolutionary group the Unidad Revolcionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG). Canadian military personnel remain in Guatemala, but the last UN military observers left the country on May 27, 1997.
From its headquarters in Guatemala City, MINIGUA personnel established offices across Guatemala, including the country's most remote areas, to collect information from both government and URNG sources, investigate reports of human rights violations and ensure full implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement of Human Rights. The mission also provides advice and technical assistance to ensure compliance with the Accords, and to develop the National Civilian Police (PNC), into a responsible and accountable civil police service.
Contingent Commander Insp. Alain Lambert says those Canadian police members working on shifts at regional or sub-regional offices "are required to document any complaints including human rights abuses. In various cases they will also actually investigate these cases along with other members of the mission, if the allegations appear to be founded." Members also "witness police interventions" in potentially violent cases. Insp. Lambert states that members have intervened to prevent vigilante justice in remote regionsof Guatemala, where lynchings have occurred.
Mission members also face the bitter legacy of Guatemala's military rule. Insp. Lambert says that the lack of public confidence in the police "is one of the main problems" facing the mission. One of the accords included in the peace agreement promised to reduce the country's armed forces budget, but Insp. Lambert says the problem persists. "The army has too much control and the better part of the national budget." The budget increases fall far short of needs, and the new National Civil Police service is under severe pressure. He says the civil force does not have the budget they would require to operate a responsible police service and that they are also short of several thousand members just to reach the minimum number of personnel required. A lack of resources makes it difficult for the new police service to break with the past.
As for the required amendments to the revised legal system, Insp. Lambert says "It is very simply not working. The whole system is changing to an accusatory system, but no formal training is actually taking place. The backlog is incredible and the system as a whole has no credibility whatsoever."
Insp. Lambert notes that the democratic process is new in Guatemala, and legislative changes will take time. A new government, elected in January 2000, "is struggling to understand, agree upon and action measures to comply with at least some of the agreed requirements (...) It requires a lot of time and negotiations for a new and inexperienced government in a country with very little democratic background." The groundwork for democracy begins with safe communities, and CIVPOL officers can help. Insp. Lambert is a member of a new working group examining the possibility of CIVPOL providing guidance and expertise to the PNC, especially in community policing. Canadian police officers know how to work with citizens, and they can use their skills to help Guatemalans take control of their communities and make them secure places for democracy to grow.
But ignoring Guatemala's problems present greater risks than those faced by the UN mission. Without a democratic social contract, the country faces the repeat of its historical pattern, with economic crisis giving way to military rule, whose first casualty is justice.
In 1999, two events in the political life of Guatemala affected the work of Canadian police in the mission. In a public consultation on constitutional reform held on May 16, 1999, and a second round of voting in a federal election on December 16, 1999, Canadian police helped to disseminate proposals for constitutional reform, assisted in voter registration, and census taking. They also assisted in and reported on political rallies and public information campaigns designed to encourage the electorate, especially the indigenous population, to vote.
After the second ballot, Alfonso Portillo, 48, of the right-wing Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), won a clear victory with 68 percent of the vote. The constitution barred outgoing President, Alvaro Arzu from standing for reelection. Mr. Portillo, a former university professor, promises to narrow the growing gap between rich and poor, and fight crime. The new Cabinet includes former guerrilla sympathizers, Mayan scholars, human rights activists and free-market advocates. After his victory, Mr. Portillo pledged to dismantle an elite presidential security unit known as the Estado Mayor, which had been accused of committing atrocities during the civil war.
The new Guatemalan government faces the challenge of building the PNC and the justice system into an institution showing real commitment to professionalism and respect for human rights. The Peace Accords opened the door, providing an opportunity for Guatemala to redefine its policing institutions. UN CIVPOL officers possess the skills and knowledge to help the country overcome its history and build a responsible, accountable civilian police force. 7
I was in Guatemala from April 14, 1999, to April 14, 2000. I worked with a UN lawyer, a Peruvian, mainly investigating human rights violations. I helped to verify the judicial system, working with attorneys and crown prosecutors, and dealing with people who had been arrested. Most of them were charged with small crimes, drinking in public places, etc. There were a couple of murders, and arrests for small quantities of drugs.
When people are arrested, they can be detained for four to six months before charges are laid. We helped to bring lawyers closer to the detainees.
The justice system was better than it was before the UN arrived, but there's no comparison to ours. They're very limited in their techniques and the number of investigations they can conduct, so it takes longer to complete investigations. We would see the work individuals were doing, and we would help them out. If we saw problems, we would advise. We were not permitted to conduct investigations ourselves; we were there to advise and assist.
My partner and I were in the north, where we were in close contact with the native people, who were 60 percent of the population. The native people were open to the UN and pleased that we were there to give them support and help with the government and the judicial system. With time, the native people have had more information and more contact with UNCIVPOL officers.
I had been to Guatemala before, in 1994 and 1996, when I worked with the Canadian embassy. With two other ex-Montréal police officers, we taught defensive driving courses to embassy drivers, police and ambulance drivers. The contract was with the embassy.
I lived in Poptun, a small town of 15,000 people; with the rural population, it was 20,000. At first it was a bit hard, living in such a small town, but I liked the people very much. Compared to 1994, it is much safer now to live in Guatemala. At that time, it was very dangerous to be out on the streets, especially at night. There are many tourists now, especially young people; it is safe enough now for them to backpack and travel anywhere.
We felt like we were really helping people, and it was interesting to work with police officers from different countries. My partner and I worked with six civilians who became a second family for us. We had good living accommodations, and food and everything we needed was easy to get.
It was a good experience and I'd like to go back in a couple of years. My partner would, too. The work is very different from our regular jobs and you feel like you're giving good service to the people in the country.
Editor's Note: Guatemalan society reflects an unusual reality: more than 70 percent of Guatemalans are Aboriginal people with a wide variety of indigenous languages and cultures. Very few police officers are properly trained to deal with such a large aboriginal community, except of course the RCMP. Many members in contract provinces serve in communities with similar proportions of Aboriginal people, and they're creating innovative and successful community policing initiatives that help bridge the cultural gap.
The following article was published last year in the RCMP Gazette, Vol. 62, No.2, 2000. The RCMP has completed its mandate in Guatemala in December 2000.
Canada and Brazil are joining forces in a project to provide long-term solutions to the problems caused by drought in northeastern Brazil, one of the most populated semi-arid regions on earth and one that ranks amongst the most underprivileged in Latin America. Despite recent government efforts to reduce poverty, generate economic growth and raise the standard of living, a large proportion of the region's 25 million or so inhabitants continue to fight economic marginalisation and social exclusion.
Most of the region's woes can be linked to a scarce water supply resulting from irregular rainfall, extremely high evaporation rates, terrain conditions that are unfavourable to infiltration and, thus, to the development of extensive groundwater resources, and a poorly understood natural phenomenon that turns the groundwater brackish and generally unsuitable for human or animal consumption, or irrigation. Furthermore, the population, especially in rural areas, doesn't have the technical know-how to properly manage the water resources that do exist. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for the community to produce the food it needs to sustain itself, even at best of times.
During drought years, when the normally rainy months produce little or no rain, the situation becomes catastrophic. Such droughts can affect very large areas and last for several years. The Northeast has just been through one of the most devastating droughts of the XXth century. The population of nine states watched helplessly as their water supply dwindled, their crops failed, their livestock died, and their land turned into a lifeless dust bowl. At one point, in May 1998, the FAO3 reported that 4.8 million people in the Northeast were at immediate risk of starvation.
The droughts, which the records show to have become more severe in the last decades, have grave and long lasting social consequences. They give rise to mass exodus of the work force towards urban centres that cannot cope with the influx; they generate diseases due to undernourishment and the consumption of poor quality water; with the diseases comes an increase in the mortality rate, especially infant mortality. The disintegration of agriculture gives rise to hunger and inevitably, social unrest follows.
The Northeastern Brazil Groundwater Project, as the new initiative is called, seeks to improve the quality of life in the area by developing the region's groundwater resources, which will improve access to a more regular and abundant supply of good quality water. This, in turn, will strengthen the region's agricultural and economic sectors, improve health, and provide the people with the capacity to better sustain themselves during the prolonged droughts that periodically beset the region.
The project was approved in April 2000 with a projected duration of nearly four years. It is managed jointly by the Geological Survey of Canada, a branch of the department of Natural Resources Canada, and the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM). Funding is provided by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and by the Brazilian government in a ratio of 1 (Canada) to 5 (Brazil).
Brazil initiated the project by launching major water resource development programs in three northeastern states, Ceará, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte, with the collaboration of several organisation that, between them, cover a wide range of disciplines and services (earth sciences, engineering, environmental, social services, health, etc.). These organisations, which include federal and state government organisations, academic institutions, the private sector, NGOs, consultants, and community organisations, have defined their roles within the project in a series of proposals that were submitted during the project development phase. It is the first time that such a concerted effort is put in place in the Northeast to try to bring relief to the problems caused by drought.
Canada's role is to help Brazil achieve its objectives within these programs by supplying the best and most appropriate technologies and methods available in the country, and by adapting them to the conditions in northeastern Brazil. Over 70 Canadian companies and public institutions have responded to a Call for Expressions of Interest, offering an immense variety of tools ranging from highly sophisticated technologies such as airborne geophysics and satellite image interpretation, to simple methodologies based on their experience of similar situations elsewhere in the world, such as implementing community water supply projects in rural West Africa.
Canadian technology is being transferred to Brazil primarily through workshop, seminars, short courses, field demonstrations, joint pilot-scale projects, technical visits, and training Brazilian personnel in Canada. The objective is to enhance the capacity of Brazilian institutions involved in groundwater research and management, to conduct surveys, studies and water management projects that will effectively lead to an improvement in the water supply in northeastern Brazil. As the newly acquired techniques replace old ones, and hypotheses and targets are tested by drilling wells or by implementing other recommendations, we anticipate that, early in the project, there will be improvement in the water supply of communities within designated pilot areas in the three states.
Technology is also being transferred at the community level through education and training projects with emphasis on hygiene, water resource conservation and protection, simple water system maintenance, equal access principle, user-pay and alternate financing schemes, conflict resolution, etc. Surveys to evaluate the needs of the population, and public sessions to promote community involvement in the project are also being conducted. This is improving the level of awareness and basic water management skills of the rural population, and ensures maximum benefits and sustainability of the results of the projects.
Long-term sustainability and replication of the project's results will be attained by establishing solid and lasting linkages between participating Canadian and Brazilian private and public institutions, and individuals. This will ensure the widest possible dissemination of the project's results and the continuance of Canadian technological influence in the region long after CIDA's involvement in the project has ended.
|
|
|
Congo-Zaire: Colin Powell, the First Black Secretary of States Must Impose Peace in Congo-Zaire, the Biggest Black Country in the World with a New President Except Joseph Kabila
On May 17, 1997, I was the principal guest speaker on a special Voice of America broadcast on the fall of the Mobutu regime. I was very proud to announce the death knoll for a regime that I had been fighting against for half of my life. This event was even more significant because it was being broadcast on FM radio to more than 4 million listeners in Kinshasa, in addition to the tens of millions of other Africans who regularly listen to the Voice of America.
In my heart however I felt there really was no cause to celebrate, for I feared one dictatorship was just being replaced by another. A few days after, the people of Zaire came to this same realisation as they saw their fight for democracy confiscated by a group of opportunists: Mobutu's former Tutsi mercenaries and their foreign armies.
Two days following the Kabila's arrival in Kinshasa in the middle of the night, his regime was denounced by everyone, including Mr Tshisekedi, who had nevertheless facilitated the task and thereafter supported this dictatorial regime supported by foreign armies. This was followed by street demonstrations. Never before had a regime experienced such a short period of grace. As they observed the Tutsi soldiers, who knew none of languages spoken in the country and who mostly spoke English, Kinshasa's residents were able to understood what their fellow citizens in eastern regions of the country had already experienced: false liberation and their country occupied by a foreign forces. Civil disobedience set in throughout the country: everyone refused to work, especially when the new authorities were incapable of paying civil servants, because the money they had collected by selling the country's mines at a discount had been sent abroad to Uganda and Rwanda as spoils of war. Moreover, the regime had taken care to prohibit political parties and independent newspapers, assets acquired at very high cost during the Mobutu dictatorship there. Kabila understood that in order to remain in power, he had to remain apart from Tutsi leaders.
In August 1998, when Kabila had asked his Tutsi leaders to go back to their own homes in Uganda and Rwanda, he was cheered by the entire population, who thus envisioned themselves as being from a foreign trusteeship that was becoming more and more unbearable.
Unsatisfied, the Tutsi initiated an airborne operation from the western region of the country in an attempt to take over Kabila. In order to properly plan their mission, they succeeded in convincing Angola's President Dos Santos that it was just an internal problem between national groups. Kabila ended up persuading Zimbabwe's President Mugabe to intervene by stressing the complicity between the Tutsi and the White South-African and American racist groups, in order to destabilise Bantou peoples and all of Africa. It was Mugabe who led Mr. Dos Santos to change his mind and thus in a few hours succeeded in putting an end to murderous adventures of the illustrious Tutsi.
After a defeat in Kinshasa, the Tutsi retreated east to Kivu, the country's most populous province, which they had claimed in the name of a mythical pre-colonial Tutsi kingdom, of which we are familiar because at the end of the 19th century, the Tutsi king of Rwanda was killed by Bashi from Kivu, thus putting and end to his imperialists goals.
It is completely unthinkable today that the Kivu ethnic groups, who have always resisted the warlike madness of the Tutsi kinglets, might be unable to drive invaders from their territory, especially those originating from countries greater in importance than small precolonial entities. The Mayi-Mayi resistance to the Tutsi occupation, even with the backing available to them, is proof that people in the east of Congo-Zaire are ready to die to defend their country's dignity. The problem originates with Mr. Kabila's government, which refused to provide them the necessary means.
We know from trustworthy military sources that just a year ago, Mr. Kabila had sent soldiers, commanded by a few officers originating from the country's eastern region and among some of the army's very best, to fight the occupying troops. The soldiers had no problem penetrating the occupied territories. They received cooperation from local inhabitants and were in a position to win the war within a few months. Unfortunately, they never received the equipment that they were expecting from Kinshasa. Its should be recalled that Mr. Kabila did not name anyone from the occupied territories to key positions within the government, even though this would have provided some reassurance to the local people that the government was providing some support for their cause. One cannot help but wonder that if Kabila did not use the same reasoning as Mobutu, in imagining that if those people were go regain their homelands they would rise up against his authority. We do however know that the country is still existence today due the refusal by people from the eastern region to collaborate with invaders. The lack of a strong reaction by Kabila to the Kisangani massacres is also very astonishing. It is for this reason that the Jeune Afrique magazine declared Kabila had made an agreement with Mr. Kagamé from Rwanda, allowing him a hand free in the country's eastern region, on the condition that they fight the Ugandans who occupied the Equator province and who might be tempted to try and invade Kinshasa.
Thus Kabila would allow his cousin Kakudji, Minister of the Interior, to call the shots in Kinshasa, arresting whomever he wants, even some ministers, and being subjected by the Tutsi to more that half the country to a regime resembling that of the slave period.
From the very beginning, the invaders made a point of destroying everything the people considered as sacred. They began by attacking the Catholic Church, which represented the majority of the population, traditional leaders, and the women (who they treated in a manner never before experienced in this area).
In October 1996, the Tutsi armies assassinated Mgr. Munzihrwa, former head of the Jesuits for Central Africa and the Archbishop of Bukavu, who had savagely opposed to the Mobutu regime and denounced the hegemonic activities targeted by the Tutsi. His successor, Mgr. Kataliko, has now been relegated to his native village of Butembo, while several priests, monks and nuns, and also Protestant pastors, have all been killed. The invaders also attacked traditional chiefs who were greatly respected by local residents. Several have died while others are now using clandestine techniques to fight their region's invaders.
Entire villages have been wiped out under the pretext that local inhabitants supported the Mayi-Mayi resistance. In the village of Kasika, pregnant women had their stomachs cut open and their babies removed, while others were buried alive after being peppered and their private parts defiled. Women have never been so severely assaulted during a period of war. According to American NGOs and specialists in the area, this fatal madness has already caused more than two million deaths. What else is required before the international community takes an interest in the suffering being experienced by these innocent people?
Colin Powell, the First Black Secretary of States Must Impose Peace in Congo-Zaire, the Biggest Black Country in the World with a New President Except Joseph Kabila.
After the death of Kabila by a young soldier from Kivu, against his meeting with Kagame of Rwanda, an incompetent political class, has put at the head of states his adoptive son who has a father and a mother Tutsi refugees from Rwanda in violation of the Constitution and country laws.
Congo-Zaire Needs a New President for the Peace Except Joseph Kabila. It could be someone accepted by people of Congo-Zaire for transition like Mr. Gizenga or General Katchuva who was against the Mobutu system or General Kalume, member of Kabila system or General Bahindwa, second of Joseph Kabila in his army. The Luska Accord for putting an end to the Congo-Zaire war is rife with imperfections, particularly at the technical level. Today however, it is the only possible solution that could possibly serve as a foundation to a more significant and extensive mechanism. As we already underlined in Jeune Afrique in December 1998, whereby an international unit of at least 30,000 soldiers who were to have been sent to supervise the withdrawal of foreign troops and secure the eastern border between Uganda and Zaire. This would and to supervise the organisation of elections, the training a strong national army and the integration of all the country's forces, a condition necessary to allowing this country to regain a normal existence, to create a political structure and to revitalise its economy.
By Kanyurhi T. Tchika
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|